Leclerc fastest in Saudi Arabia despite session-ending wall 'kiss'

Charles Leclerc topped second practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix despite ending his session early following a brush with the walls.

A time of one minute 30.074secs from Leclerc was enough for the Bahrain Grand Prix winner to continue his clean sweep of practice session this weekend even after contact forced him to end his evening early.

Unable to complete a soft tyre run, Verstappen was second fastest, just 0.140s on the medium tyre.

Similarly to in Bahrain, practice two is the only session that takes place in representative conditions in the cooler temperatures of the night.

Drivers focused on medium tyre runs in the early stages of the hour-long session with Leclerc topping the timesheets by 0.02 seconds from Verstappen.

But after fitting soft tyres, within moments of each other, Sainz clipped his rear-right on the outside wall at turn 13 before Leclerc made considerable contact with his front-left at turn four.

The contact brought Ferrari's session to an end with the team confirming: "Following both drivers kissing the wall they won’t resume this session due to damages."

After missing the majority of FP1 with a hydraulic problem, Magnussen again lost vital track time when his car stopped at the side of the track midway through the session.

The virtual safety car that was required to recover the Dane's Haas scuppered the soft tyre runs of both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, leaving the Red Bull pair second and third.

In fifth and sixth, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both again struggled with porpoising at Mercedes.

Lando Norris gave provided some joy for McLaren, putting his MCL36 in seventh with Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda completing the top 10.

The two Williams drivers again found themselves getting caught up with traffic, although neither was investigated in this session.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix second practice session results

1. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] 1:30.074s

2. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] +0.140

3. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] +0.246

4. Sergio Perez [Red Bull Racing] +0.286

5. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] +0.439

6. George Russell [Mercedes] +0.590

7. Lando Norris [McLaren] +0.661

8. Esteban Ocon [Alpine] +0.686

9. Valtteri Bottas [Alfa Romeo] +0.758

10. Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri] +0.812

11. Fernando Alonso [Alpine] +0.870

12. Pierre Gasly [AlphaTauri] +0.889

13. Mick Schumacher [Haas] +1.095

14. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin] +1.298

15. Daniel Ricciardo [McLaren] +1.453

16. Nico Hulkenberg [Aston Martin] +1.541

17. Zhou Guanyu [Alfa Romeo] +1.541

18. Nicholas Latifi [Williams] +1.740

19. Alex Albon [Williams] +1.792

20. Kevin Magnussen [Haas] +2.270

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